How Gina Gershon Got Inside Donatella Versace's Head

Hint: Lots and lots of cigarettes

‪From the second Gina Gershon struts on screen—pouty lips hugging a cigarette, slim shoulders ensconced in cat-pelt, that blasé look centered between two sheaths of platinum hair—we know Lifetime's biopic on Donatella Versace, ‬‪House of Versace‬‪ (airs Saturday, October 5 at 8 p.m. ET), will be serving up iconic Donatella realness, poured out in the designer's trademark tobacco-coated Italian mumble. Later, Gershon shows us the Donatella we haven't seen, squealing with daughter Allegra over party dresses at home, collapsing under the weight of her brother Gianni's death, and rebuilding the family business from the ground up. (The fashion house's official take on the film: "the movie should only be seen as a work of fiction.") We talked with Gershon, 51, about humanizing an icon, her own eccentric beauty routine, and how many cigarettes it takes to fuel a day in the life of Donatella.‬

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‪You are the spitting image of Donatella in this movie. Tell us how that physical transformation happened on set.‬

‪You know, the usual: Hair, makeup, tape. High heels, tight skirts, wigs. And lighting. I put my makeup on differently, contoured my face in different places, pulled parts back with tape, laid on the wig. I watched her. I watched the way she walked. I watched tons of videos of her nonstop, and listened to her while I was falling asleep. I took all the information I possibly could get my hands on—physical information, intuitive information, things mutual friends told me about her—and I just went with it. But once I put on those high heels and tight skirts, it helped a lot.‬

‪For all of us who don't know her personally, Donatella is so defined by her physicality. Was it a challenge to get into her character before you had all the physical elements in place?‬

‪I've never met her, either. The most important thing with any character is to capture their essence, but when you have someone as iconic as Donatella, and everyone really knows what she looks like—she has a quite a specific look—you need to own that… You kind of learn someone else's rules. Like, when my cat's upset, his tail gets a certain way. If he's happy, he walks a certain way. It's the same with humans once you really observe them. Donatella is kind of shy, in a way. She got better and better, but in the beginning, she's not totally comfortable with people. I think that's where her look comes from: That half-eyed, glazy look. Not glazy, but her lids are down. It's almost a protective thing.‬

‪All those videos of Donatella are capturing public moments. How did you extrapolate from them to show the parts of Donatella that no one has ever seen?‬

‪There are also so many images of her—pictures backstage at a fashion show, or at her brother's funeral—that spoke a thousand words, particularly if it was a picture that she didn't know was being taken. Once you understand how she felt about certain people, you can hopefully start playing the truth of someone. But it was my version of how she was going through it. At the end of the day, who knows? She could watch it and say, "Oh God, that's not how I felt at all." TV is such an instinctual medium, because you have hardly any time. We did this whole movie in 20 days. We were doing seven scenes a day. You really just have to go with your gut.‬

‪We hear that you smoked a lot of cigarettes to get her voice down.‬

‪Uhhhh, yeah. That part. I really respect her, and I really appreciate her as a person, but that part of her? I wanted to kill her half the time. I was like, "Oh my God, why do I have to smoke so much?" I don't know how she does it. But you can't play Donatella without smoking a lot of cigarettes. Even when you're filming a scene, even if you're taking a hit on a cigarette and putting it out, you're still doing that scene a couple of times and you still have to smoke a lot. I was up to a couple of packs a day at the end. I definitely needed to clean out my lungs after playing her.‬

‪This is also a movie about the '90s. What was it like to return to that decade again?‬

‪Here's one thing: Everyone gets so worked up about all the cocaine use with Donatella, and she definitely had a little bit of a problem with it. But honestly, everyone was doing a lot of coke then. That was part of the culture, especially in the fashion world. I would say 80 percent of the fashion world was doing that. It definitely got the best of her after a while, but she got help, she got out of it, and she got through it. But it was a different time, drug-wise. Everyone was partying like that.‬

‪Do you remember how you felt about Donatella and her clothes when you were working as an actress in that period?‬

‪In the '90s, I was just starting to work. Tom Ford was heading up Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, and he was a really great friend of mine, so I was mainly wearing his stuff, and Dolce & Gabbana. You kind of link on to someone. I really wasn't wearing Versace at all. I'm sure I would have, had I met Gianni and Donatella. I would have been all over it.‬

‪Tell us about the costumes in the movie.‬

‪Before I came to set, I went vintage hunting for some real Versace pieces. The costume designer found a couple, too. I found these really great black-and-white Versace pants from that time period. We got that black leather jacket with the safety pins on it. There was also a really fantastic jacket, black with gold pieces on it, that fit like a glove. When I wore the real thing, it felt pretty good. You could feel the difference. Once I lost weight and got into my Donatella zone, the pieces fit me perfectly. I have to say: They knew how to cut. The rest of the pieces we had to recreate, because Versace wasn't giving us access to their clothing, which would have been amazing. You can't just recreate Versace. Versace is Versace for a reason.‬

‪This is a movie about high fashion that was filmed on a Lifetime budget. Was that a concern at all?‬

‪Yes. I think fashion people will be able to stare at the piece and say, "Wait a second, I know where that's from." But most people will get the glamorous vibe of it. I'm a perfectionist. I wanted every single thing to be Versace, but what can you do? If you have a zillion dollar budget, it's always better. But most people can't tell.‬

You play this woman, who is a larger-than-life figure—is there anything about the way she lived her life you felt you could learn from?‬

‪She was very extravagant, and she was very generous… Money comes in, money goes out, and they whooped it up. Those Versaces really knew how to live. And she would be the first one to buy everyone little diamond bracelets and trinkets. If you said you loved a dress, she'd get it for you. I kind of love that about her. She really seems like a lot of fun to hang out with. I'm bummed out that we never hung out. I still can't understand why our paths never crossed, but maybe they will.‬

‪You've emerged as a bit of an eccentric figure yourself. I'm talking about the book you wrote recently about your relationship with your cat, Cleo.‬

‪Does that make me eccentric?‬

‪It seems like you went pretty deep into the "cat people" world.‬

‪[Laughs]. Listen, I never intended to write a book about my cat. I had been telling everyone this story, and they came to me. It wasn't like, "Oh my God, I must write about my cat." But the story really is unbelievable. My relationship with my cat is kind of analogous to relationships in general. I guess maybe I am a bit of a weird cat person, because these strange things keep happening to me, but it's not like I'm going out looking for them! I am madly in love with my cat. A lot of people are madly in love with their animals. It doesn't make them crazy. Does it?‬

‪We don't think you're crazy. But we did read that Cleo has now become a part of your beauty regimen.‬

‪I knew I was going to get in trouble for that. And I know that people think I'm insane for that. But I'm telling you—I think there's some weird truth to it. Unfortunately, Cleo is really old now and he hasn't been well. He's been on antibiotics. Because he's so thirsty all the time, he just kisses me constantly. He licks my face. I think he likes my serum, or whatever I have on it. Since he's been doing that over the last few months, people have been noticeably commenting on my skin more. They're like, "What are you doing to your skin?" And I kept thinking, "I'm not really doing anything different! I wonder what's happening." And I thought, "Maybe it's that Cleo is exfoliating my skin with his saliva and his weird antibiotic potion." And maybe it's doing something! I'm not saying for sure, but I'm saying: It is a coincidence.‬

‪Amazing.‬

‪If you think about it, it kind of makes sense. I'm very aware that people roll their eyes at me about it. But cats' tongues really are like an exfoliating washcloth. Or maybe I'm crazy. I don't know anymore.‬

‪Do you think Donatella will be watching?‬

‪I have no idea. Put yourself in that position, of watching someone else play your life. It's weird! It would have to be kind of unpleasant. I'm sure there are moments where she would laugh her head off, going, "Oh, please." And there are other moments, whether they're completely accurate or not, that have got to be difficult to watch. We have this caricature of this larger than life character—the Donatella from SNL—but she's impressive. I honestly have so much respect for her, and I think it shows in the film. How she's dealt with her life has been pretty interesting. When I read about her and learned more about that side of her, I was like, "wow." I will play this woman. I'd play her even if she weren't Donatella.‬